Amaranth stuffed capsicum

Once again, this is a recipe suitable for people who eat gluten/dairy free and for those who are vegan. In case you're not fond of 'amaranth' it is an ancient grain which looks like tiny little balls which expand once boiled. They are rich in nutrients and a great alternative to wheat-based products. Your best bet is to find it in the health isle of your supermarket or local health food store. Please be aware that I'm hopeless when it comes to inventing my recipes and taking the measurements I use into account, so you may have to fiddle with that again!

Ingredients;

- Capsicum (red, orange, yellow or green)

- Amaranth/Quinoa (as much as required to suit how many people your cooking for and how full you stuff the capsicum)

- Zucchini

- Celery

- Mushrooms

- Carrots

- Any other vegetable (peas and corn go well)

- Tamari - A gluten free organic soy sauce

- Bottled tomato cooking sauce

- Oil and seasoning to taste

Method;

- Bring water to the boil and cook the amaranth/quinoa using ratio 1 cup of water to 1 cup amaranth. It takes about 15 minutes to cook (read the packet for exact cooking time).  You may use the leaves off the celery when you boil the grains for flavouring.

- Dice chosen vegetables finely and sear them in a pan with water, tamari and tomato sauce. Once the water has evaporated turn off. (don't flood the pan)

- Slice the top part of the capsicum off so it makes a lid. Drizzle the capsicum with oil and bake for 5-10 minutes at 180 ͦ .

- Once the amaranth/quinoa and vegetables have cooked, mix them together in a bowl then take out the capsicums and stuff them.

- Place the capsicum lid on and make for another 5 or so minutes to your liking. 

Hope the recipe all goes well!

Summer haze

 Spending my lessons fishing around on tumblr looking for something new to dream of having in my wardrobe. This Zimmerman blouse definitely topped the list. Regardless of the colour blocking trend recently overtaking stores, I still have an endless love for the creams and whites for summertime. I love the symmetric cutouts and the uniqueness of this top. Lets hope I get this for Christmas!

KSUBI store hits Melbourne

Whoever finally decided that it would be a smart idea to run a KSUBI store in Melbourne was pretty damn wise. My ever lasting dream has been granted. These are the shots I sneakily snapped whilst browsing around the shop. I have a new obsession with this rustic, grunge, warehouse, unfinished look of interiors. I'm working towards making my bedroom in my new house look a little like it too which I'm looking forward to. Linking back to KSUBI, their new range is really nice. It's neat with bald colours and not too many prints but a few to make a perfect season's spring/summer collection. 

Never have I experienced such diverse shopping in Melbourne

I've never really appreciated what Melbourne has to offer. When I say I go to the city nearly each and every weekend - I mean it. Yet every time I never realized how diverse this city is. As you grow older you learn to recognize the more detailed features of the city like the architecture, multiculturalism, how things run and the diversity in shops. On the weekend I went shopping at Melbourne Central, I hadn't been in a while because I was totally shopped-out when I came back from overseas. Returning here was a big surprise, there were all new shops through out, and a limited time market in the middle of the mall selling vintage goods. Cheap thrills!

'The Super Cool' is the most unique shop concept I've seen so far. It's open with no walls, all its items presented on the synthetic grass floor stacked up in neat piles and presented like you were in a garage sale of some sort. They sell amazing home ornaments which some look like items found in hard-junk yards then revamped. Some other stores sold things like the famous 'Dali' clock which pretty much resembles a melting clock. If my wallet wasn't so empty I would have loved to take some of these home with me.
Credit to Rebekah for taking some of the amazing shots aswell. 

What I'm reading right now

It was only 2 months ago that the new magazine ‘Just Be’ hit the shelves. It’s a magazine about fragrance, lifestyle and fashion. So pretty much 3 of the things I love combined. The layout it neat and pristine, printed out with only the crucial pictures and texts on the page, none of the off-putting junk they print out on trashy magazines. I was intrigues by Miranda Kerr, she resembles health in the best way possible and this month they have done a 2 page spread on her. I think I’m going to have to subscribe to this magazine now! ‘Oyster’ magazine is another monthly magazine I’ve been getting for a while. It’s more artistic, abstract and cultural. I’m not usually the one to purchase ‘Bazaar’s’ latest although Montana Cox (winner from Australia’s next top model) was features on the cover and throughout the magazine so I had to get it regardless. She has the look of a girl-next-door and simultaneously has quite distinctive features that really bumped up her chances of winning. 

Shades of gray of happier days

 As girls do, gather at each others house before any outing whatsoever, and the traditional ritual of taking photos pre-event. "I need a new facebook picture guys!"

Amateur chef

Mid last week I was really in for a break from hardcore exam studying. My favourite past time hobby is cooking, I love experimenting and trying out new things. Since I'm into healthy foods and since coming back from LA - raw foods, I decided to invent my own dessert. If your somebody who's not into the richness of sweets but likes something just sweet enough to please the palette & for those of you who don't eat or have allergies to dairy, sugar, egg, and gluten this is great. It's also 100% raw and loaded with nutrients! 

Tofu and mixed nut slice. 

It was a very experimental thing and I made it up as I went, it's the only way I know how to cook. 

I'll try and give you the basis of the recipe but I can't assure it will turn out the same considering I wasn't taking any measurements, so you may have to do a little altering. 

Ingredients; 

1/3 block tofu (about 120g), Tbsp agave, 2 Tbsp almond spread, small hand full pumpkin seeds,

1/2 cup almond meal, 1 Tbsp unhulled Tahini and walnut oil if nessesary. 

Method:

-Combine the almond meal, tahini, pumpkin seeds and half the agave into a blender. Add more or less agave to desired taste. Blend ingredients well, if mixture is too crumbly, add some walnut oil or extra tahini. 

-Press mixture down into a flat contanier/ceramic tray, cool in the fridge. 

-To make the tofu crean  blend together the rest of the ingredients. Again, you may have to give or take a few measurements until your instinct tells you the texture is right. It shouldn't be runny nore chunky. 

-Spread a thick later of the tofu cream over the almond meal layer and cool back it the frdge until it sets. 

Bon Apetit! 

If your allergic to any nuts in particular, you can always alter the nuts and seeds from almond butter to peanut, walnut or cashew butter and change the sunflower seeds to walnuts or any other seeds.

If anybody decides to make this treat, let me know how it goes. If it's a flop I'll help you out with what to do.  

Lights and Laga

Maybe just the fact that I was a fifteen year old in Vegas made this deserted city to be not so much what I expected it to be. I felt safe inside my hotel which I should mention was amazing. It was called The Venetian. It was honestly the only place I wanted to be. Once you took step outside during the day more so, it was trashy and unbearably hot. On our second morning we woke up at the crack of dawn (about 6am) to leave for our tour to the grand canyon. On the way we observed some trashy group of girls coming back from a party. It is something you have you to say you've seen, it's quite amusing when the drunksters start talking crap to you. 

The grand canyon was an amazing experience, we took a helicopter to right inside the canyon and watched the 'overaged' passengers sip champagne. 

We had also been seeing this 'oxygen bars' around, it seemed to be the 'in thing' to do in Vegas apart from throwing away your money. Apparently they were meant to energize, calm, rejuvenate and revive you? We gave it ago pretty much just for the fun of it. I'd have to admit the flavours were worth more money than the supposed feeling to get after having this oxygen filtered through your nose. Pina Colada was my preferred. 

Exam free Friday

Good afternoon! I'm in a less stressed/anxious and more chirpier mood as of now. At 10:19 precisely this morning I finish my finals exam for the year. I guess I could now say that I don't have to take the rest of 2011's school work too seriously? I'm going to be posting a lot more frequently... one coming up right about now on Vegas baby!!
 PS - Sorry about my last post it went a little crazy I'm trying to figure out what went wrong with the layout now.

Culinary Capital

  

Just a few photos I selected from my time in San Francisco. It's seems like I was there forever ago when it was just 2 months ago. I loved SF, it was the culinary capital of the US but still didn't meet the standards of Melbourne. It also had some great shops and boutiques and everything was built quite neatly and organised. We stayed in Union Square which was in the heart of the city, though we couldn't miss out on seeing the famous and to my opinion overrated 'Pier 39'. I'm the kind of person who likes to go on holidays and live it up like the locals not the tourists who get pleasure out of seeing tacky souvenir shops and unlicensed street performers. The one thing I regret not seeing was Alcatraz - which was where all the prisoners were on an island with a view from the piers. Did I forget to mention how hyped I was when I saw all these foreign flavoured chewing gums?

As I previously mentioned about San Fran being the culinary capital, these are some photos of the types of food we had, mind you we had some great restaurant meals although the pictures didn't work out as well because when you get a dark-gloomy room and a non-functioning camera it doesn't go so well.  The cinnamon tea was from our hotel's breakfast restaurant, I had it on a regular basis - ever since I tried it I can't seem to have enough of it and I have failed to find it back home which is seriously depressing. The bundle of what looks like junk is from a novelty shop on the island Sausilito at the other end of the golden gate bridge. I have yet to try any of these but I'll let you know how they go when I do. Two of the things you must try are the sourdough bowl clam chowder from Boudin Bakery and the European deli A.G Ferrago Foods. This large european deli make the finest of salads, pastas, fresh breads a decadent cheeses. We bought a collection of things and took it to the park for a cute little picnic on a beautiful sunny day. I also highly reccommend people go to SF primarily for the art galleries and museums. From Picasso to Dali to names un-heard of it is definitely worth your while. I found my favourite pieces of artwork here and I'm not normally the one who fancies these things.